18 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



The oyster industry of southern Puget Sound waters was greatly 

 handicapped by excessively cold weather during the winter of 1915, 

 which froze large quantities of the oysters. The output from this 

 region was curtailed during the following seasons while the beds 

 were being restocked. This reduction of Puget Sound oysters in- 

 creased the price of western oysters grown in the Yaquina River in 

 Oregon, where no such calamity occurred. The latter region, how- 

 ever, could not supply the demand, and there was a noticeable scarcity 

 of oysters throughout the Northwest. Three or four years were de- 

 voted by the Puget Sound growers to restocking their beds, but by 

 the season of 1919 almost normal conditions prevailed in the oyster 

 industry of the Northwest. 



Pectens have not been taken from the open ocean in large amounts 

 off the northwest coast. The writer has, however, seen quantities of 

 them dredged in the San Juan Archipelago about 100 miles north of 

 Seattle, Wash. Several species of these mollusks have been taken 

 here while dredging was being done for other material. Enough 

 have been taken, however, to indicate that they are well distributed 

 in these waters and present in considerable numbers. 



The author has been informed that pectens have occasionally been 

 taken from the ocean off Yaquina Bay and have appeared on the 

 Newport market. There seems, however, little attempt on the part 

 of fishermen to make surveys along the northwest coast for pectens, 

 and the boats are usually without proper dredges or trawls with 

 which to take these mollusks. 



SHELLFISH RESOURCES OF MINOR IMPORTANCE. 



In addition to the regions discussed above, which represent the 

 chief producing centers of shellfish in the territory survej^ed, there 

 are a number of other localities of minor importance which should 

 be mentioned in order to make this report complete. They are, for 

 the most part, in isolated regions and in thinly populated districts 

 having inconvenient means of communication with outside points. 



Shellfish, although frequently occurring in large quantities in 

 these isolated regions, have, at present, little economic value except 

 as they may supply a very limited local demand for sea-food prod- 

 ucts; or, the shellfish may be species not yet generally recognized as 

 l^roper human food. To this latter group belong the mussels. 



On the Oregon coast, among regions of minor importance, the fol- 

 lowing may be mentioned : 



CANNON BEACH. 



This locality, immediately south of Tillamook Head, at one time 

 supported large numbers of Siliqun patula, the razor clam, but in 

 1918 the author was not able to find a single one throughout the 

 entire length of the beach. Mytilus edulis and Mytilus calif ornianuH 

 are common forms on the rocks standing out from the shore, but 

 little importance is attached to them in this locality. 



During August, 1918, plantings of the razor clam were made on 

 this beach from a shipment from Seaside. 



